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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/25933678">Rapunzel Complex</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Repeatinglitanies/pseuds/Repeatinglitanies'>Repeatinglitanies</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>The Umbrella Academy (TV)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Bed-sharing, Don’t copy to another site, F/M, Gen, Mention of vissy, Pseudo-Incest, speculation for S3</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-08-16</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-08-16</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-05 05:22:16</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,468</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/25933678</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Repeatinglitanies/pseuds/Repeatinglitanies</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>When something got in Five’s way, years of training under both Reginald Hargreeves and the Commission taught him to get rid of it. For the most part, it had worked out well for Five.</p><p>Except that it could never be an option when it involved his family and Vanya in particular.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Number Five | The Boy &amp; Vanya Hargreeves, Number Five | The Boy/Vanya Hargreeves</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>12</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>159</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Rapunzel Complex</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>When something got in Five’s way, years of training under both Reginald Hargreeves and the Commission taught him to get rid of it. For the most part, it had worked out well for Five.</p><p>Except that it could never be an option when it involved his family and Vanya in particular. </p><p>Even in their youth, Vanya had always prized her long dark hair as her one feature of beauty despite Five’s repeated <i>reassurances</i> (or rather his version of reassurances) that she was being ridiculous. In hindsight, she might have interpreted that as “Vanya, you’re being silly to think of a hunk of hair as beautiful” when in fact what he meant was “Vanya, thinking that your hair is the only pretty thing about you is ridiculous.”</p><p>Of course, she always went silent after that. And wouldn’t speak to him for a full day afterwards, which prompted Five to eventually shut his mouth when it came to Vanya’s hair. Five may secretly like to hear himself talk and have Vanya attentively listen to him. But having her unresponsive certainly sucked the joy out of their time together.</p><p>Looking back, Five couldn’t recall a single time he ever truly won an argument with Vanya. True, he most often ended up having the last word. But at the end of the day, that didn’t matter.</p><p>So when she missed a target because the wind she herself had generated blew her hair straight to her face or when an assassin (which could come from the newly reinstated non-Herb-led Commission or from the very much alive Reginald Hargreeves or some third party that suddenly want to use them for <i>scientific purposes</i>) grabbed a considerable length in an attempt to slit her throat or even that time it got in the way of Vanya’s meal because it blocked food coming into her mouth, Five was at a boiling point.</p><p>Under normal circumstances with people who weren’t Vanya, he would have just made them shave their hair off. Better to be without a limb if said limb was in danger of killing you.</p><p>But this was Vanya. At the moment, it was just the two of them in a remote cabin for the purposes of going in hiding and training. Their idiot siblings had insisted on going their own way just to check up on people who could very well endanger them despite Five’s masterful attempts at persuasion.</p><p>They should know that they had to stick together. This version of 2019 wasn’t their home. And they were all they really could rely on. Most important of all, they were always stronger when they were united.</p><p>But Allison had to find out what happened to her daughter. And Luther would never let her do something so dangerous on her own. Diego had to see his friend Detective Patch (as well as continue to feed his damn hero complex with his vigilante justice). And Klaus wanted to know what happened to his soldier after not being able to summon him in this reality. Five suspected that Klaus also wanted to see this reality’s version of Ben despite Five’s constant reminder that their brother was dead and that Ben Hargreeves of the Sparrow Academy (which, by the way, was a big factor of why they barely made it out of Hargreeves manor alive) was not their Ben.</p><p>Needless to say, Five went to bed angry, at himself (for his failure to yet again keep his family together), at his family for refusing to place reason over their emotions, and at everything in general for never giving Five his way no matter how much he struggled and scraped.</p><p>The only thing that soothed the pain was the warmth of Vanya’s body as she slung an arm over his waist and burrowed her face on his back. At least she had stayed. Five didn’t think he could survive any further duration of solitude after almost five decades of it in an apocalypse. </p><p>He was actually surprised she stayed. Given how much she wanted to bring her Texas housewife lover and her son, Five had fully expected Vanya to go her own way as well.</p><p>Much later, after partaking of alcohol in celebration of a training milestone (Five was able to bring Vanya with him as he manipulated time to go back a few seconds and Vanya was able to pluck out leaves from a tree without destroying said tree), he found the courage to ask her despite fearing it would light something up in Vanya and spur her on a journey to find her lover.</p><p>“I’d be lying if I said I didn’t think about finding Sissy. But I figured that I didn’t want to know what happened. If she’s still living a long and wonderful life, I don’t want to put her in danger. And if I find out that she didn’t, I don’t want to know what I’d do.”</p><p>
  <i>Besides, I didn’t want to leave you alone when I know you really need me.</i>
</p><p>It went unsaid. But Five heard it just the same. They had recently developed an occasional telepathic link. He blamed his carelessness and momentary lack of situational awareness. </p><p>He got distracted with Vanya’s hair when a bolt of lightning suddenly struck him.</p><p>According to Vanya, he didn’t have a single heartbeat for a few seconds. Good thing she knew CPR which involved forceful pumps to his chest and mouth-to-mouth.</p><p>The first time he <i>heard</i> her thoughts was when he took off his shirt back in the cabin to find a vine-like pattern over his chest and back. Vanya had gotten cross with him because he didn’t want her help with taking off his clothes or taking a bath. Though secretly, he just didn’t want her seeing this damn lanky teenaged body that a damn typo gave him.</p><p>
  <i>Beautiful</i>
</p><p>He knew Vanya didn’t just say that out loud. And for a brief moment, Five thought he might have gone insane.</p><p>“What did you say,” was pretty much all he could get out before he fell on the cabin floor.</p><p>___________________</p><p>He woke up with hair on his face. And the immediate reaction of wanting it out of the way.</p><p>
  <i>That itches. But it feels so soft. I like it.</i>
</p><p>“If you let me give you a sponge bath, I’ll let you touch it as much as you like.”</p><p>That got Five to open his eyes. And if there ever had been a moment when he wanted to bury himself inside a deep, dark hole, it would be now.</p><p>But Vanya took a no-nonsense approach. It seemed that she really did make a good nanny. Not that Five would ever say that out loud. Though given this new psychic connection, he certainly hoped Vanya never picked up on that.</p><p>___________________</p><p>So it was that in exchange for her help, he got to run his hands across her long, dark smooth hair. He was so happy he grabbed that conditioner for her. Five never did see the need for it before. But now, Five knew better.</p><p>And so it was that Five made it a rule that Vanya’s hair must be put in order before any training. For both of their sakes. So every morning, Five insisted that he comb her hair and tie it up in a style that suited his fancy. Pony-tails were good when they really needed to focus more time on training. But he really liked putting her hair up in braids. So whenever he could, he would spend time practicing on the different kinds: French braids, fish-tail braids, braid crowns etc.</p><p>“You could have been a stylist, Five. I love it!”</p><p>And touch other people’s hair? No, thank you. But as with any job well done, Five appreciated the compliment. It was fairly easy to learn the styles after stealing a bunch of women’s magazines and practicing the different styles on Vanya, who usually didn’t mind.</p><p>To Five, it was the best stress relief he’d ever had. Certainly better than aggressively confronting and/or killing off anyone who looked at him the wrong way or made him feel in any way inadequate.</p><p>If the daylight brought the pleasure of putting Vanya’s hair up, the night time gave him a bit of a thrill in putting it down, again running his hands through soft hair and ensuring it was brushed a hundred times to keep it glossy and healthy looking. And when they slept face to face on their shared bed, he found it incredibly easy to fall fast asleep with a fistful of her hair close to his face.</p><p>He’d never say it out loud. Five thought it smelled heavenly.</p><p>But that was fine with the both of them. Because now, Five didn’t need to open his mouth for Vanya to know.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Please do not follow what Five and Vanya did after he got struck by lightning. They are Super-powered individuals and are more than capable of surviving it.</p></blockquote></div></div>
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